


The Life Cycle of Shortlived Crushes

by bob2ff



Series: Seirin Shenanigans [8]
Category: Kuroko no Basuke | Kuroko's Basketball
Genre: Bad Puns, F/M, Gen, Humor, Male-Female Friendship, Puns & Word Play, Romance, Romantic Comedy, Romantic Friendship, Teen Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-08
Updated: 2014-05-08
Packaged: 2018-01-23 23:29:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,458
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1583369
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bob2ff/pseuds/bob2ff
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Riko hits puberty, it is both embarrassing as hell and wildly exciting when her feelings begin to change, towards her stupid middle school mates.</p><p><em>It began shortly after Riko’s fourteenth birthday. Izuki-kun had approached her and Hyuuga-kun as they walked into the school. He beamed, his usual greeting of “</em>Fine<em> morning to </em>find<em> you guys here!” inviting Hyuuga-kun’s daily whack upside his head. But then, he turned to Riko, and added, “</em>Aida<em>-san, </em>Ai da<em>re say your </em>Riko<em>mmendation for that training exercise was great! I tried it out yesterday.” And, looking up at him, all bright smiles and peppy </em>thum<em>bs up, Riko’s heart suddenly</em> thum<em>ped.</em></p>
            </blockquote>





	The Life Cycle of Shortlived Crushes

**Author's Note:**

> Written for BPS' Challenge 69 (Beginnings).

It began shortly after Riko’s fourteenth birthday. Izuki-kun had approached her and Hyuuga-kun as they walked into the school. He beamed, his usual greeting of “ _Fine_ morning to _find_ you guys here!” inviting Hyuuga-kun’s daily whack upside his head. But then, he turned to Riko, and added, “ _Aida_ -san, _Ai da_ re say your _Riko_ mmendation for that training exercise was great! I tried it out yesterday.” And, looking up at him, all bright smiles and peppy _thum_ bs up, Riko’s heart suddenly _thum_ ped.

Shit, she thought. Damn puberty. It had _snuck_ up on her while she had been defenselessly oblivious, and _struck_ her with a crush on Izuki Shun, of all people. Riko did not _want_ to begin crushing on her male friends left and right. It was both infuriating and utterly embarrassing. But it was also exciting.

There were the butterflies in her stomach whenever he smiled at her, both pleasurable and anxiety-inducing all at once. And it was not as if Izuki-kun was a bad choice as a first real crush. He really _was_ quite attractive, as Riko felt every time she shook herself frustratedly to stop herself staring at him dreamily during school time.

Most embarrassingly however, she found herself giggling helplessly every time he made a joke. And, since this was Izuki — “Aida-san, have you seen my missing _watch_? I can never _find the time_ to look for it.” Riko never thought she would find the day she would be indulging Izuki in his puns. But now here she was, finding every opportunity to giggle at him, leaning on him whenever they corres _pun_ ded.

As with most teenage girls, she went about trying to do something about her crush by asking him out. Still, this was Riko, and she was _not_ most love-struck teenage girls. 

“A one-on-one personalized training session with Aida-san? Is this the _star_ t of my basketball _star_ career?” Izuki exclaimed happily.

Hyuuga was aghast. “What about me?” he demanded. Riko waved him off dismissively. “Just continue your treadmill training and you’ll be fine.”

“Yup, unfortunately, Hyuuga, this _train_ ing only has one _seat_ — and it’s _reserved_ for me,” Izuki winked and patted him on the back, smiling self-importantly. Riko had blushed bright red, and Hyuuga had bonked him on the head.

The days up to their date, Riko nervously counted. She wasn’t sure how to act around him. She wasn’t sure how to act on a _date_. It had gotten to a point where she was writing down pick-up lines to say to him — “Know what’s on the training menu? Me ‘n’ u.”

As it were, Riko couldn’t stop being Riko. An Aida training session was still an _Aida_ training session, after all. So their ‘date’ had ended with Izuki saying that he “couldn’t feel my _left side_ , but I’ll be _all right_ in a while.”

But after that, he had excitedly dragged her to his favourite cafe. Riko’s stomach had leapt up to her throat as he suggested it, his hand feeling warm and tingly on her wrist as he led her to his ‘favourite place to eat in the world.’

Except — “Our specials today are the Lord of the Wings, Sunken Thai-tanic Noodles, and the Codfather,” the waiter reeled off the food items to a beaming, delighted Izuki. Riko had felt a confusing mix of happiness that they were on an official date, and stifled desire to cringe at their _pun_ quet.  

After their date, Riko’s crush on Izuki gradually died a natural death. It was mainly due to the fact that she couldn’t visualize herself s _pun_ ding the rest of her life listening to his _puns_. She comforted herself — whatever, Izuki was just an oblivious _pun_ k, anyway. 

When she began feeling those dreaded butterflies every time Hyuuga-kun casually touched her — a pat on the shoulder, helping her hold her bag, leaning into her space accidentally — it was both better and worse. 

Better, because it was Hyuuga-kun, and Riko got to spend a lot of her time with him. Worse, _because_ it was Hyuuga-kun, and she spent _a lot_ of her time with him. She didn’t know how she was going to get through this without him finding out.

Unlike with Izuki, however, Riko accepted the feelings with resignation. She was going to have to deal with puberty, whether she liked it or not. It was best to let it run its course.

Still, this was _Hyuuga-kun_. The boy she knew the longest. She couldn’t believe she was having feelings for a boy she had once seen almost-naked during an unfortunate incident when she had dared him to climb up the tallest tree in their neighbourhood, and his pants had _ripped_ as he clambered up. Even though at the time she had rolled all over the ground, laughing at the bright red Hyuuga, a _now_ fourteen-year-old Riko could not recall that moment without feeling flushed, hot and bothered. So what if she _had_ seen him almost naked?

As with the beginning of a crush, the initial feelings were delightful — every time their shoulders brushed against each other as they walked to school together, Riko intentionally leaned in a little more, relishing the contact. And the delicious anticipation of seeing him every morning as he ran in her father’s gym more than made up for her flustered awkwardness around him.

“Call me Riko-chan,” she demanded of him, one day. Hyuuga-kun looked at her strangely.

“Why.” He asked, obliviously rummaging through his bag for the latest copy of Bball Monthly. There was _no way_ Riko was right about Stephen Curry’s training regime.

Turning bright red, Riko just whacked him on the head, hard, and ordered him not to question her. He cocked his head at her, and asked, a _stupid_ expression on his face, “But you’re _Riko_. You’re not _Riko-chan_.” 

Even after that time, when Hyuuga-kun had unknowingly trampled her heart, that disastrous, _heartbreaking_ incident, Riko couldn’t help herself. She demanded his hair washing services, relishing his deft fingers combing through her hair and imagining, at the very depths of her mind, a situation far _less_ innocent than a hair wash. 

But it seemed all Riko could do was demand, and scold, and whack Hyuuga-kun. _No wonder_ she was a Riko, and not a Riko-chan, to him. Every time Riko tried to act a little more girly, a little more like the girls she read about one desperate day she had bought all the magazines spouting articles with titles like ‘How to get your crush to notice you,’ Hyuuga-kun would get worried, and confused.

“Are you sick, Riko?” he would place a concerned hand on her forehead, when she tried speaking in gentler, softer undertones so he had to lean in to listen (‘Follow that with a bat of the eyelashes, and he’s yours!’).

Or his chiding “You didn’t sleep enough again yesterday, didn’t you?” whenever she would deliberately lean onto him for support with every jostle on their daily bus-ride (‘Just add a hairflip and rest your hand strategically on his shoulder!’). Riko didn’t know if the problem was her lack of flirting ability, or Hyuuga-kun’s own general cluelessness.

Riko suffered through the entirely of her second year of middle school, battling her crush on Hyuuga-kun. It took a lot longer to get over than her crush on Izuki-kun, just because she was reminded every day of what a great guy he was, even if he was just her _friend_. 

His casual way of talking to people whoever they were, making friends without even realizing it. His unthinking concern for her, carrying her bags and books for her just because she “looked tired, and I need the weights training anyway.” 

People teased them, calling her ‘Hyuuga-kun’s girlfriend,’ but Riko knew that his behaviour was just Hyuuga-kun. It wasn’t anything more than friendship. It _couldn’t_ be anything more than friendship. If it were, Hyuuga-kun would have said something, _done_ something by now. Right?

So their friendship remained as it always had been, and Riko let her once blazing feelings simmer down. As time passed, Riko took a long, hard, look at her feelings, and was glad to find that her feelings had successfully receded below the surface. Sometimes they bubbled up to the surface, though.

Even when her heart still leapt slightly at Hyuuga-kun’s too-long glance into her eyes, Riko pushed the feelings down again. Even when she felt the feeble fluttering in her stomach every time he casually brushed her hair out of her eyes, Riko dismissed them as residual feelings.

She _couldn’t_ like Hyuuga-kun again. Riko had outgrown puberty, and Hyuuga-kun had never felt that way for her. They were friends. They were past that point where anything could have happened. Weren’t they?

 

**Author's Note:**

> Food name puns are inspired by real places! I hadn’t written some puns in a while, and occasionally I get struck by _pun_ spiration, so I decided to write this. =) Always open to hear what you guys think, drop me an ask on [tumblr](http://bob2ff.tumblr.com/)!


End file.
